Today's Political Firestorm: Obama Was Somehow Right That Nicki Minaj Supports Him

Today's* Controversy: Well, that was weird! Last week Nicki Minaj rapped about supporting Romney, then today Obama says, no, she was probably just rapping in character—which is absurdly self-assured—and then Nicki Minaj announces, via twitter, that she was, yes, actually just being sarcastic. And she supports Obama. So this thing that seemed like a somewhat minor coup for conservatives (Look! A major creative type who's going to vote Republican!) has actually turned into a mildly large coup for Democrats, insofar as it has actually dedicated a whole news cycle to the (otherwise obvious) fact that a popular creative type is going to vote for Obama. Bravo, Axelrod.

*You may have noticed that we went on hiatus during the Republican and Democratic conventions. This is because conventions are a zero-sum game: they exist in a vortex in which everything is simultaneously a huge thing and not a thing at all. We refuse to acknowledge them on our hallowed Thing-Meter.